Grad school gift pays tribute to Sikh immigrants

UVic’s graduate business school has a new name, the Sardul S. Gill Graduate School of Business, marking the first time in Canada that such an institution has been named for a donor of Indian descent. The new name honours Victoria resident Sardul Singh Gill’s $5-million gift to the Gustavson School of Business.

That gift in turn is Gill’s way of honouring his Sikh immigrant parents—Bhan Singh Gill and Hardial Kaur Gill—for encouraging him to pursue higher education. “My father’s thinking was this: Get your education, and if you can’t use it somewhere, you can always go back to what you’re doing, which was working in a sawmill,” Gill recalls.

That advice came during the 1940s, when few Canadians of Asian extraction pursued professional careers. In fact, his guidance counsellor at Victoria High School advised Gill against going to college because of his “background.”

But in the early 1950s, Gill enrolled in Victoria College anyway, later transferring to UBC, where he graduated with a bachelor of commerce degree in 1956. He went on to earn his certified general accountant designation and pursue a 30-year career as an auditor with the federal government.

In the meantime, he steadily built a portfolio of residential and commercial real estate now held by his company, Gill-AM Investments. Those investments proved so successful that, as he approached his 80th birthday this November, he decided to donate a considerable portion to UVic.

“The funds will provide much-needed support for our graduate students in financial aid and scholarships, international projects and research, and for faculty teaching and research,” says Dr. Ali Dastmalchian, dean of the Gustavson School of Business. “We are delighted to name our graduate school after Mr. Gill; he is a person who exemplifies the importance of hard work and integrity.”

Gill said the motivation for the donation was simple: “This is my hometown. I was born and raised here, and father spent most of his life here. So why not UVic?”

His daughter, Amir Kaur Gill, and a son, Kevin Singh Gill, are UVic graduates. Gill and his wife, Amar Kaur Gill, who died in 2009, have two other sons: Robin Singh Gill and Stephen Singh Gill.

Their grandfather, Bhan Singh Gill, was born in 1887 in Jagdeo-Kalan, a village in the Amritsar district of the Punjab. He first came to Canada in 1906. With only a fifth-grade education, he had to settle for labouring jobs in Vancouver Island sawmills.

Hardial Kaur Gill came to Canada in 1926. Her son, who was born in Victoria in 1931, and his sister, Perminder Kaur Gill, arrived in the midst of the Great Depression.

“My father couldn’t even get a job for nine, 10 cents an hour,” Gill recalls.

A devout Sikh who was a founder of Victoria’s Sikh temple, Gill’s father persevered despite the tough times. He could see that social attitudes were changing, his son recalls.

“Everything is moving forward,” Gill says. “I think there is subtle racism. It’s still there. I’m not going to deny the fact … but it’s changing, for the better, much better.”